The Goalie Guru: On skating, rebounds and tempers

February is the month where coaches and players (but coaches
specifically) start looking to round their teams into playoff form.
And, as any coach will tell you, a goaltender can make or break a
team’s fortunes in the postseason.

Brion O'Connor, The Goalie Guru, gets in
position at the top of the crease at Fenway Park.

Just this past month, Sports Illustrated’s Michael Farber
exhumed one of the great adages regarding netminders:
“Goaltending is 75 percent of your hockey team, unless you
don’t have it. Then it’s 100 percent.”

So, in that vein, I felt it was really important to touch on a
few topics that coaches (and parents) ought to keep in mind during
the stretch run. Some may sound familiar to my regular readers, but
they bear repeating.

Skating

“When do I get to stop some shots?”

I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve heard this
from young goalies. I don’t blame them. Stopping shots is
what we’re all about, and the reason most kids take up the
“tools of ignorance” in the first place. You never want
to discourage that attitude.

Plus, skating drills are hard work, and they’re
potentially boring (although there is some room for creativity).
Because most younger kids have the attention span of a hyperactive
flea, keeping them engaged — without the added incentive of
stopping some shots — can be tricky.

On the other hand, no one picks up a guitar and starts playing
like Eric Clapton in the first sitting. Or dances like Fred Astaire
(or even Beyonce) without putting in the requisite practice. In
fact, the great ones — musicians, dancers, hockey players
— keep practicing, all the time. Expertise, or even
competence, isn’t something that is simply attained, but
constantly nurtured and refined. It’s the coach’s job
to teach goalies that their performance is inextricably tied to
their skating ability. Here’s why:

The first rule of goaltending is getting to the right place at
the right time, in the right stance. The game is played at such a
fast pace that, if you can’t skate, you’ll always be
chasing the play. That’s losing hockey.

For most positional players, the turning point in their
development comes when they can skate and stickhandle at the same
time. It is the proverbial “walking and chewing gum”
moment. And it’s easier said than done. The same holds for
goaltenders. Until a goalie can get to the right spot without
thinking “how” he’s going to get there,
he’s going to be too slow.

Skating is the position’s foundation. Unless a goaltender
has a sturdy foundation, the rest of his game quickly falls apart.
Coaches should make sure that their young netminders work on their
goalie-specific skating technique before every practice.

This doesn’t mean the skating drills that everyone else is
doing. The old maxim “a goalie has to be one of the best
skaters on the team” is true, but it’s a very different
type of skating. Coaches owe it to their team to understand those
differences, and learn how to run a few basic goalie-specific
skating drills (if you need some ideas, send me an email).

Rebounds

Shooting drills should be designed to allow the goalies to
follow the rebound. Every. Single. Time. I’m constantly
amazed to see high-end “elite” teams relentlessly
running old-school shooting drills — a full-length dash
followed by an uncontested shot — where the goalies literally
are getting drilled. I call it my “One in 20 Rule.” If
you’ve got 20 kids lined up on the boards, for every shot
that each kid takes, the goalie sees 20. At the end of
“warm-ups,” the poor kid has seen enough rubber to
start a tire factory.

This makes no sense. Actually, it’s borderline abusive.
First, you risk frying the very player who you’re counting on
to come up big between the pipes. Chances are, they’re not
warmed up — they’re worn down.

Second, players (goalie and shooter alike) don’t learn to
instinctively follow their rebounds. This has to be second nature,
both if you want your team to score, and if you want your
goaltender to keep the puck out of the net (this doesn’t mean
just looking at the rebound, but following it). In the shooting
drills I run within a team setting, I always stress getting after
the rebounds, for every player.

I’m often dumbfounded, when I come into a new coaching
situation, by how some players need to actually be told to go for
the rebound. That’s a sign of myopic coaching. The mindset to
get after rebounds is not a light switch that can be flicked on
before a game; it has to be ingrained.

Some coaches avoid emphasizing rebounds because it means the
second kid in line actually has to look and make sure the first kid
has finished. Coaches see this as inefficient. I see it as
discipline (another hallmark of good teams). If you insist on
running the “One in 20” drill, get a shooter tutor, and
let your goalies work on their skating.

Temper, temper

Teams can be fragile organisms. They consist of 12 to 18
individuals that form a bond over the course of the season, and
nothing tests the strength of that bond like playoff hockey.
Arguably, the single most important link in that chain is your
goalie’s demeanor.

If the youngster throws a tantrum every time a puck gets by him
(or her), your team is going to get nervous. And nervous hockey
players make more mistakes. Which leads to more goals. See where
I’m going with this?

I’ve seen too many talented goaltenders let their teams
down because they can’t get their act together from the neck
up. If a goalie melts down, either in practice or a game, it should
be addressed immediately and firmly (though quietly in the first
few instances). I like my goalies to be competitive, but never want
them to confuse competitive fire with being undisciplined.

Instead, they have to learn to channel that energy in a positive
manner. Even if they are absolutely raging inside, they must
present a calm, confident appearance. That, like almost anything
else regarding the position, takes practice (which is why tantrums
should never be tolerated, even at practice).

Both parents and coaches need to be cognizant of this tendency.
I once had a young student — now a starter for a Division 1
program — tell me, after getting completely flustered and
quitting during one drill, “I don’t do that in a game,
coach.” I had my doubts. Further, even if he didn’t,
he’s already sowed similar seeds of doubt in the minds of his
teammates. If teammates think their netminder is a hothead,
they’re going to be worried about whether that player can
keep it together during a high-stakes game.

Again, doubt is a genuine threat to team chemistry. Nip it in
the bud early, while helping your goalie to develop that strong
outward persona. Your team will be better, and more competitive,
for it.

This article originally appeared in the February 2012 issue
of New England Hockey Journal.

Brion O’Connor is a Boston-based writer and owner of
Inspired Ink Communications. He is also a long-time hockey coach
and player, specializing in goaltending instruction. Learn more at
TheGoalieGuru.com. He can be reached atfeedback@hockeyjournal.com